BARCELONA, Spain -- For most of its mobile life, simple cell phones have been Nokia's bread and butter. It's safe to say that Nokia knows how to make a good-looking device that handles basic communication. The 29 Euros ($40, £24) Nokia 220, announced at MWC 2014, looks like a promising addition to this legacy.

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One thing I like about Nokia is that no phone is beneath its attention. The 220 comes in bright colors; I saw it in red, but check out our slideshow for the blue and yellow versions. The polycarbonate unibody design has rounded corners, and a smooth finish that helps it fit comfortably into my palm when I held it. In typical Nokia style, the color runs deep. Instead of simply coating the phone, it saturates the material and flows into the dial pad, a rarity.

Nokia adds one other tiny bit of flair, where a square directional navigation pad surrounds a central select button. It looks neat and handles well.

Into the meat of the phone, the 220 has a 2.4-inch, 320x240-pixel display, a 2-megapixel camera, and Nokia's Express Cloud Browser, which compresses data. You will have access to Facebook and Twitter, and in a nod to Microsoft, Bing is the default search engine.

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About The Author

Jessica Dolcourt reviews smartphones and cell phones, covers handset news, and pens the monthly column Smartphones Unlocked. A senior editor, she started at CNET in 2006 and spent four years reviewing mobile and desktop software before taking on devices.